We are proud to announce Curtis & Windham’s second consecutive Palladio Award for Longwood Farm, recognized in the category of new construction over 5,000 square feet.
At Longwood Farm, we sought to create a weekend country house whose design reflects regional architecture with a decidedly English influence. Set on the rolling prairie that preludes Texas Hill Country and guided by a traditional English model of living and entertaining on a rural estate, the natural features of this former equestrian property – meadow, forest, and creekbed – were edited to enhance and guide the views and experience throughout the property. The English model also informed the design and placement of the house in the landscape as both an object to be viewed from a distance and as a hilltop vantage point from which to look out into the landscape. In keeping with its Texas/English influences, the main body of the house is a tumbled local limestone with a thin coat of cement parging. By contrast, the side wings are rendered in clapboard siding in a nod to the vernacular Texas farmhouse. In a similar melding of cultures, neoclassical details in the Great Room give way to more simply constructed details in less formal rooms.
The jury included Michael Imber, Michael Imber Architects; Ankie Barnes, Barnes Vanze Architects; Tom Kligerman, Ike Kligerman Barkley and Wayne Good, Good Architecture.
The Palladio Awards are the only national awards program honoring traditional design, and are produced by Clem Labine’sPeriod Homes magazine. The award will be presented July 21 in Princeton, New Jersey, during the Traditional Building Conference.
We are looking to fill a summer internship position in our architecture studio. Applicants should demonstrate enthusiasm for traditional and classical architecture and possess proficiency in hand drawing and rendering; AutoCAD, Photoshop and Sketchup experience is a plus. Qualified candidates are current students in a Bachelors or Masters degree program in architecture.
Please submit cover letter, resumes, and work samples to [email protected]. Subject line: Summer Internship 201504
The Chama River Valley as seen from Estancia Del Rio
Chama River, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico (Blue River), 1935 Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887 – 1986) oil on canvas, 16 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. New Mexico Museum of Art
New Mexico’s Chama River was a much beloved landscape subject of artist Georgia O’Keeffe. She paints a sinuous river cutting through the layered desert landscape, the blue water a sharp contrast to the earthen tones of the hills.
The most recent desert residence we have completed, Estancia del Rio, commands a view of the Chama River Valley from much the same vantage point as O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch paintings. The house, a single residence conceived as separate buildings, blends into the desert landscape by virtue of thick stone and adobe walls. Emphasizing the mass and echoing the forms of native cliff dwellings, walls step or ramp up and down with emphasis on the horizontal or nearly horizontal line. The overall effect is harmonious with the shapes and materiality of the landscape, blurring the boundary between man-made structure and natural desert forms.
We are currently seeking candidates for two positions in our landscape architecture studio:
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: This position will be responsible for the coordination and implementation of all design phases from schematic design through construction administration. Must possess the ability to manage all aspects of a project including the coordination of engineering and horticultural disciplines and willingness to collaborate on cross-disciplinary projects. Candidate should have excellent freehand drawing skills, be proficient in AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Photoshop, and possess excellent communication and organizational skills.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT with interest in HORTICULTURE: In addition to the skills described above, we are looking for a candidate that has a strong interest and thorough understanding of horticulture and project-appropriate plant selection. Candidate should have excellent design skills and possess the ability to coordinate horticultural disciplines with hardscape and engineering systems. Candidate should have experience in managing diverse aspects of project implementation through all phases of design and construction.
Qualified candidates must have a professional degree in landscape architecture with a minimum 2 years experience preferred.
Please submit cover letter, resumes, and work samples to [email protected].
We look forward to the release of The Art of Classical Details: An Ideal Collaboration, in which author and colleague Phillip James Dodd examines the collaborative environment that is critical to producing great architecture. The book, to be published in May 2015 by Images Publishing Group, will feature Curtis & Windham’s Longwood Farm.
From the publisher:
IN THE FOLLOW-UP to the critically acclaimed The Art of Classical Details, Phillip James Dodd continues his look at some of the finest examples of contemporary classical architecture in Great Britain and the United States, while also examining how collaboration is the key to their successful design.
In reality collaborative relationships are rare, especially amongst designers, where each is often focused on their own individual objectives and unable to transcend their own egos. Often used as a catch phase, but not often realized, true collaboration requires an understanding – and an appreciation – of the role that all parties play in the design and construction of a home.
An Ideal Collaboration includes the work of some of the most notable names in contemporary residential design. Architects, decorators, landscape designers, consultants, builders, craftsmen, artists and vendors, all address the design process and the pivotal role that collaboration plays in creating cohesive timeless designs.
